Memoirs of the REV. Zebulon Ely, A.M., of Lebanon, Connecticut

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1825. Excerpt: ... OF THIS REV. ZEBULON ELY, or LEBANON, CONNECTICUT. THE subject of these memoirs was born in Lyme, in the state of Connecticut, in the parish called the North Quarter, February 6th, A. D. 1759. His father, Ezra Ely, was a respectable husbandman; and his mother Sarah, whose maiden name was Sterling, was a Lady of superior education, for the times in which she lived: but providence removed her from her affectionate partner, two little daughters, and her only son, when he was an infant of four months. In his childhood he discovered a fondness for books, but enjoyed no advantages above those which the public schools of his native state have uniformly presented to all her offspring, until he commenced a course of academical studies, under the tuition of an excellent injr structor, the Rev. Elijah Parsons, of East Haddam. By his close application and upright behaviour he secured the friendship of that pious and sound divine; and under his auspices, was able in nine months after he took the Latin grammar in hand, to enter Yale College. In that institution he was distinguished as a Linguist, by obtaining the Dean's Bounty; and in the other attainments usually made in our higher seminaries of learning, he was excelled by few of his companions. While in his junior year, in 1777, he began to write whrt he called Life's Review; and he continued the practice of recording b his views, feelings, trials and mercies, at short intervals, until dis_j abled by that disease which translated him to Heaven. He assigned as his reasons for keeping a diary, that it would be satisfactory to review past life, provided it should be filled up with usefulnes; and-that if otherwise spent, it would be necessary to humble himself berffore God, and supply him with the matter for supplicat...